To reap the full benefits of 5G-IoT, businesses will need to have a data infrastructure that is strong enough to manage the zettabytes of data transactions from IoT devices efficiently. Source: Shutterstock

Can businesses really harness data captured using IoT and 5G?

BUSINESSES have started collecting data from every device and tool they possibly can — and this is only going to increase in the future as 5G and IoT take-off.

IoT sensors are getting smaller, their batteries are lasting longer, and they’re getting more affordable. With the arrival of private and public 5G networks, more IoT sensors can be included in corporate networks, collecting more data in real-time.

Researchers estimate that by 2025, IoT devices will collect 90 zettabytes of data and expect the global datasphere to touch 175 zettabytes in all. That’s plenty of data — but are businesses really going to be able to harness it all?

To reap the full benefits of data in the 5G-IoT enabled world, businesses need to create a data infrastructure that is strong enough to manage the zettabytes of data transactions from IoT devices efficiently.

Further, the infrastructure should be able to integrate various data sources to produce valuable insights that will become decision-making intel.

Challenges for IoT analytics at the 5G-enabled scale

Theoretically, real-time data collected by sensors in an IoT ecosystem and transmitted over 5G should help manufacturers weed out defective units instantaneously and allow supply chain managers to plan their routes better, among other things.

However, organizations will need to integrate analytics into their data infrastructure in order to respond with the same speed with which data is collected, to build a seamless ecosystem.

To connect the dots between data sets and produce insight for the business, organizations need to re-think how they manage and harness their data.

The answer to the problem isn’t simple and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Organizations need to work with specialists to understand their needs and then work on finding ways to alter existing hardware, software, and processes to support those needs.

Organizations that can improve data infrastructure quickly to harness analytics in real-time will be able to tip the scales in their favor and gain meaningful insights and create exciting experiences that delight customers — which is a significant competitive advantage by itself.

In the future, the explosion of data enabled by IoT and 5G is inevitable. Preparing now for that future is a good idea for businesses that want to ensure they’re getting the most out of the data their customers and value chain partners are providing them with.